Arya.ag co-foounders Anand Chandra and Prasanna Rao

Grain commerce platform Arya.ag has announced its entry into apples expanding its horticulture portfolio beyond chillies and onions. The company will bring its technology, grading, storage, finance and commerce capabilities to the apple value chain, beginning this season across key apple belts of Kinnaur, Narkanda, Rohru, Kotkhai and Jubbal, the company said in a statement.

Arya.ag will work with growers, farmer producer organisations and local aggregators to facilitate the movement of graded Himachal apples into organised markets in HP, Haryana and Punjab. Produce will be assessed at pack houses close to the orchards using AI-enabled grading scanners, with graded lots moved into controlled atmosphere (CA) storage and subsequently made available to retailers, e-commerce platforms, processors and institutional buyers as demand emerges through the year.

The company has brought in seasoned professional Nitin Kumar Lal Srivastava, with over two decades of experience with brands such as Namdhari’s and Reliance, to lead the perishable fresh fruits business.

Alongside storage and commerce, Arya.ag will extend commodity-backed finance across the apple value chain, supporting growers with timely payment and enabling registered traders and processors to access financing against graded apple inventory held in CA storage. This will help growers realise value from their produce while allowing buyers to secure the quantity and quality they need through the year without tying up their full working capital at harvest. Formal credit exists across parts of the apple cycle, but lending against objectively graded, insured and stored fruit has been rare, the company said.

Himachal’s apple harvest runs from July to November, forcing growers to sell quickly through mandis, often waiting weeks for payment. From December to June, buyers depend on CA-stored apples or imports, with graded Himachal fruit in short supply.

The 2026 crop is forecast at 4.36 lakh tonnes, nearly 40% below 2025, following poor snowfall and inadequate winter chilling. This threatens off-season supply for processors and organised retail.

Anand Chandra, Co-founder and COO, Arya.ag, said, “Apples require a very different post-harvest system from grain. Quality has to be assessed early, storage conditions have to be managed precisely, and every movement has to be planned around the characteristics of the fruit. Our focus is to bring these capabilities together so growers have better visibility into the quality and movement of their produce, while organised buyers can access more consistent supply through the season.’’

Prasanna Rao, Co-founder and CEO, Arya.ag, said, “A grain bag can wait a week for a decision. A box of Royal Delicious cannot. Everything we have built for apples, from the pack-house scanners to the chamber release schedule, is designed around that difference. We aren’t applying our grain playbook to fruit; we are building a second playbook on the same platform.”

Published on October 22, 2026